I tracked this Common Baskettail dragonfly (Epitheca cynosura) in the air for quite some time as it patrolled back and forth along one of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, hoping that it would land. Fortunately I acted quickly when finally it did perch and was able to capture these shots.
The Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website provides the following description of the Common Baskettail, “Small, dark, constantly hovering. Fast, acrobatic flight. Often high above clearings and sunny paths/old roads. Also along pond, stream and river edges.” As you can tell from this description, it is pretty challenging to get a shot of a Common Baskettail dragonfly.
Occasionally I will try to capture an image of a Common Baskettail while it is flying, but that works better when the dragonfly is flying above a pond than when it is flying with a background of vegetation. If you are interested in seeing some shots of Common Baskettails in flight, check out my blog posting from May 2022 entitled “Flying Common Baskettail dragonflies.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wonderful photos and commentary, Michael. You are the master of Dragonflies and Damselflies and I look forward each spring to see your first sightings posted.
Awesome 👍
Such a wonderful and fragile creatures. I hope to photograph them again soon.
Beautiful photos. I especially love the shimmer of the wings in the second shot.
Thanks, Laura. I love to try to shoot from different angles, never knowing for sure when the light will produce different effects. When the subject is cooperative, I definitely try as many different approaches as I can.
You are having a good season Mike, I look forlornly at my pond and……nothing.
Your time will come. We had some unusually warm days in April, but the last few days it turned cooler and today I consequently saw few dragonflies.
What a cute little dragonfly.